Ready
by OneCoolBroad
Summary: "If he can put up with my crazy and my sass for just a couple more weeks or even a couple of months, who knows?" Tag to 5x16, "Tested"


**Here's a little one-shot I wrote to connect Mercedes's decision to tell Sam that she's waiting until marriage with the caveat she told Rachel. There's some Rachcedes because I appreciate when they get along. There's no smut here; not in my wheelhouse, sorry.**

**_Ready_**

_"If he can put up with my crazy and my sass for just a couple more weeks or even a couple of months, __who knows?"_

Weeks had past since Mercedes told Sam that she would not have sex before she was married. As a testament to his patience and love for her, Sam prayed and agreed that he could live following her terms. That conversation, however, was by no means the last time the subject came up. They were still a young couple sharing a bed, and Blaine was still frequently absent in favor of spending time with Kurt in the loft. This meant that much of the time that started as "hanging out" quickly turned into "making out" and neither one of the was immune to their chemistry. The difference was, Mercedes no longer had to verbally remind Sam to stop before they went too far. Instead, they had a mutual understanding not to comment if Sam abruptly ended a make out session to "take a shower" or "go for a run." And he always made sure to kiss the apologetic look off his girlfriend's face before he left.

Weeks became months and the couple was still celibate and still going strong. But now, Mercedes had become more comfortable expressing herself physically. This translated into more intense make out sessions; their hands still stayed above their clothes but they further explored the terrain. At times, they progressed to the point where Mercedes was perched in Sam's lap, rocking her hips so they were grinding on each other. It was on those occasions that Sam took it upon himself to make sure they resisted temptation. And if he had to admit it, he found it a bit amusing to have Mercedes be the one who suddenly needed a "shower" or "glass of water."

Besides their sexual frustration, the passing months had been wonderful. After a few false starts they worked out a good rhythm with each other and Blaine and the couple found that domestic life suited them. It helped that rent was still free; Sony was still willing to pay for Mercedes' place in Harlem as long as her studio sessions continued to be productive. Sam's modeling career had begun to pick up so he was booking jobs regularly. Still, he surprised Mercedes with an idea one evening:

_"So, I've been thinking," Sam started. He leaned one narrow hip against the kitchen counter and watched Mercedes slice vegetables for a salad._

_"About?" She asked absentmindedly._

_"Going back to school." Sam snuck a few slices of carrot from the cutting board and tossed them in his mouth. His response got Mercedes' attention. She placed the knife down on the counter and turned to face him. _

_"Really?"_

_"Yeah," he replied between crunches of carrots. "I was thinking of studying business or something. Maybe one day I can be my own agent. And I know I can't model forever anyway."_

_"That sounds pretty wise. It would be good to have a degree between the two of us," Mercedes beamed up her boyfriend with pride._

_"Yeah, and who knows? Maybe I could work for you one day. I'd be like Kim Kardashian's mom. They call her a 'mom-ager.' But I'm your man, so I'd be your 'man-ager.'"_

_Mercedes giggled at Sam's attempt at a joke, to which he just smiled his crooked grin._

It was now the beginning of spring: Mercedes' album was in the home stretch, Sam had almost a full semester of courses down, and at the moment he was wrapping up a photo shoot. Mercedes entered and stood to the side, observing her man at work. Sam was clad only in a pair of low rise jeans, along with three other handsome young men. Mercedes wasn't sure why their level of undress was necessary, seeing as it was an ad for sunglasses, but she knew too well that when it came down to it, the adage "sex sells" was true. Sam had no problem with playing up his sex appeal, and Mercedes had no problem with it either, as long as he stayed in sound mind and body. She was definitely appreciative of all the hard work he put into staying so fit. Unfortunately, she wasn't the only one.

The shoot had completed, but Sam was held back by a statuesque woman in impossibly high heels, a tight pencil skirt and a crisp blouse that showed more cleavage than Mercedes ever expected to see in a professional setting. In one hand she held a clipboard while the other playfully pushed Sam's shoulder as she laughed just a bit too hard at whatever he was saying.

Sam seemed to have sensed Mercedes' gaze because he immediately looked up and locked eyes with her. He waved her over excitedly with a grin on his face. She smiled back briefly, but kept her eyes trained on the woman as she approached.

"Hey, baby." Sam dropped a peck on her lips. "I'd hug you but I don't wanna get makeup all over you." He gestured to his torso, where it was evident that makeup was used to highlight the ridges of his abdominals.

"That's fine," she said distractedly while keeping her eyes on the other woman who hadn't founded it necessary to back away from Sam. He didn't seem to notice.

"This is Mercedes, my wonderful girlfriend I'm always talking about," Sam said to the mystery woman. "Baby, this is Katerina. She works a lot of the shoots I do. She's a model, but also works behind the scenes too! That's how I got the idea to go back to school."

"Hmm," Mercedes replied distractedly as she got a good look at Katerina. Mercedes couldn't tell what ethnicity she was, just that she was tanned, beautiful, and had flowing hair so perfect that if it wasn't a weave it was unfair to women everywhere.

"Hmm," Katerina huffed back, pulling her face to a smirk before flipping that silky hair over her shoulder. Before sauntering off, she turned to Sam and said in an accented voice, "It's _always _such a _pleasure _working with you, Samuel."

Sam nodded a goodbye before turning to his girlfriend. "Where did you want to go for lunch?"

Mercedes' appetite was suddenly nonexistent. "Umm... Actually, I don't want anything; I'm not feeling too well."

"Oh no, really? Let me just clean up and change and we'll see what we can do to make you feel better."

"Don't worry about it," Mercedes shrugged one shoulder. "Take your time. I think I'll just go home."

"Home?" Sam asked. "But you just came from home."

Mercedes didn't respond as she was already on her way out the door.

Sam arrived at their house about an hour after Mercedes bearing bags of takeout. He put the food down in the kitchen before roaming around in search of this girlfriend. He found her in their bedroom curled up on her side of the bed with her back facing him.

"Hey baby, how're you feeling?" He asked in a stage whisper.

"Leave me alone," she mumbled back.

"I got miso soup if you're still not feeling well and General Tso's if you're up for it."

Mercedes rolled over slightly to glare at him. "What did I just say?" She sassed.

Sam put up both hands in surrender. "Okay, jeez. I'll leave you _alone_."

And he did. Mercedes woke the next day to see that Sam's side of the bed remained untouched through the night. She did, however, notice a note left in his pillow.

_I hope you're feeling better. If you are, maybe we can have a do over for lunch. My treat._

_I love you,_

_Sam_

Mercedes sighed and rolled out of the bed, taking the slip of paper and stowing it her nightstand. She shuffled into the bathroom and rushed through her routine. Once she was done, she went out the the street to hail a cab. The train would take too long.

"Thanks," she said to the driver as she buckled herself in. "I need to go to Brooklyn. Bushwick."

* * *

She knocked frantically on the oversized steel door until she heard a singsong voice yell, "Hold your horses! I'm coming!"

True enough, the door was slid open to reveal Rachel Berry in leggings and a sweatshirt. She took in Mercedes' frazzled appearance and ushered her friend into her bedroom. She scooted over the pile of laundry she was folding so they could both sit on her bed.

"What's wrong?" She asked.

"I think I might actually be insane."

"Mercedes, as a fellow diva I understand the appeal of dramatics but even I think that's a bit much. What happened?"

"I don't know," she groaned, "I've been acting like one of those crazy jealous girlfriends. I went to Sam's shoot yesterday and there was this model _Katerina _there. Impossibly tall and thin and absolutely gorgeous. And of course she was all over Sam."

"What did Sam do?"

"Nothing. I don't even think he noticed."

"Even though she was all over him?" Rachel leaned closer in interest.

"Well, she wasn't exactly _all _over him. But she was in his space and laughing all hard and called him 'Samuel.'" Mercedes mocked the woman's accent with an exaggerated hair flip.

Rachel laughed at her impression. "Well, I know it sounds funny coming from me, we all know how intense I can be about 'other women,' but I don't think you have anything to worry about."

"I know," Mercedes whined, putting her hands over her face. "That's the problem. I overreacted. I didn't outright accuse him of anything because Sam loves me and would never do anything to hurt me. But I still blew him off and acted all salty to him. And he just continued being sweet to me. I'm a terrible girlfriend."

"Aww, Mercedes, you're not terrible; we all overreact sometimes. Just apologize. I'm sure Sam will understand."

The girls hugged and and changed the topic to lighter things, giggling and folding Rachel's laundry together. After some time, Mercedes had calmed down and was ready to head back uptown.

Once she arrived at home she nibbled on the leftover takeout and mulled over the events of the last day. After steeling her resolve, she went through her morning routine again, this time with a bit more care. Mercedes made sure her hair and makeup was impeccable and put on a black shift dress, a fitted military style jacket and matching heeled boots. After giving herself a once-over, she sashayed out the door, ready to make things right.

Mercedes arrived at the studio as the shoot was winding down. Instead of looking for Sam, however, her eyes searched for her nemesis, Katerina. She spotted the model across the room checking out the male models over her ever-present clipboard. Mercedes strode over to her with purpose.

"Hey, Kat."

"It's Katerina," was her automatic reply as she flipped her hair over her shoulder to see who had spoken. "Oh. It's you," she huffed once she recognized the woman in front of her.

"Yeah, it's me. Mercedes," she sassed back, propping one hand on her hip. "This is your formal warning. Keep your thirsty ass away from Sam. He doesn't want you; you're just embarrassing yourself."

"Whatever, he's oblivious to my flirting anyway. Everything is always 'Mercedes this, Mercedes that.' I thought he was making you up, to be honest."

"He wasn't. I'm very real." Mercedes responded with a hard edge to her voice.

"Yeah, well this isn't worth it. You can have him."

Mercedes scoffed, "I don't need your permission. And I already do have him." With that, she turned on her heel and walked to meet Sam, who was gathering his belongings. When he spotted her, his face lit up.

"Mercedes! You made it! Are you feeling better?"

Mercedes went straight for a hug and gripped him tight for a moment before responding, "I'm great," into his chest. She looked up to meet his eyes. "I love you."

"I love you too," he replied with concern on his face. "I was thinking we could go to the diner; I know how much you love the place."

"Can we order in instead?"

"Yeah. Are you sure you're okay?"

"I'm wonderful. I just wanted to have a chance to talk before Blaine comes home from class."

The couple made their way to the subway station and on their trip home they conversed like they hadn't spoken in weeks, rather than the one night of Mercedes' cold shoulder. When they got home they went upstairs to their room.

"What are you in the mood for? I can order online," Sam offered, logging on to Mercedes' computer. Mercedes reached over and pulled his hands from the keyboard. She used her grasp to guide him to their bed. Sam sat silently with obvious puzzlement while Mercedes organized her thoughts.

She let out a deep breath before saying, "I'm sorry that you felt you needed to sleep on the couch last night."

"You weren't feeling well and you seemed upset with me so I thought I'd give you some time to cool off," he shrugged.

"I wasn't actually sick. And I wasn't mad at you. Actually, I think I was more mad at myself."

Sam was really confused now. "What d'you mean?"

Mercedes looked down and her hands, ashamed. "I was jealous. Of Katerina."

"What?"

"I know, it was stupid but she's gorgeous and exotic and she was all over you. Plus you seemed to really get along-"

"Mercedes I would never-" Sam seemed surprised by the very notion that he would be interested in someone else.

"Believe me, I know. Through all the jealousy and attitude I never for one second doubted your actions or your love for me. And I love you just as much, if not more."

"Impossible." Sam replied firmly.

Mercedes smiled at his contradiction. "Well, I can say without a doubt that we're it for each other. This," she gestured between the two of them, "is real."

"Yes, it is," Sam agreed before kissing her lightly on the lips.

Mercedes broke away to shrug off her jacket and continued, "So I guess what I'm saying is I'm ready. I want to express how I feel about you physically." She looked into his light green eyes. "Let's have sex."

Sam's eyes widened in surprise before he swooped down to place a kiss firmly on her lips. He swiped his tongue along her bottom lip and she eagerly opened her mouth to deepen the kiss. Mercedes's hands danced along the hem of his t-shirt, brushing against the sensitive skin of his lower abs. Sam suddenly pushed her hand away.

"Are you sure? You-"

Mercedes shut him up with a kiss, trying to convey all her feelings in the one gesture. Once the need for air became urgent, she backed away only slightly and cupped Sam's face with her hands to maintain close eye contact.

"I'm sure, and I'm sad it took me this long to realize it." Before she could go back in for another kiss, Sam spoke up again.

"You don't wanna wait so I can make it special? I've still got all those candles."

"We've waited long enough," Mercedes urged. "Save the candles for another time. This is already special enough. Because it's us."

Sam seemed satisfied with her response; his whole body seemed to relax and a mischievous grin appeared on his face.

"Well in that case," he started, before he playfully pounced on his girlfriend. She laughed loudly as they bounced on the bed, but her laughter was soon silenced by his lips.

The couple became a tangle of limbs. The anxiety that Mercedes had in the past was replaced with anticipation. Every touch left tingles in its wake. Her hands trembled as she felt the planes of his body. Her breath became heavy as Sam explored what had once been off limits. He paced himself, taking the time to lead her over the edge once before seeking his own pleasure. Sensual moans mixed with declarations of love and gratitude. And once she was sated, truly satisfied for the very first time, Mercedes drifted off into a dreamless sleep.

Sam laid next to her in his own drowsy state of bliss. He looked over her lovingly, admiring how the light of the street lamps glanced off her curves. Quietly, as to not disturb her slumber, Sam reached for his jeans that were discarded haphazardly on the floor. He dug in the pockets for his wallet and removed two twenty dollar bills that he had reserved for their meal. Leaning over his side of the bed, he stashed the money in a lockbox hidden there labeled, "Mercedes's Ring Fund."

**_Hope you guys liked it! Let me know what you think. And it would be great if you could check out my Samcedes multi-chap, "Backlash" and drop me a line, *hint hint*_**


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